It's the core textbook for psychology at London Met and a very very easy read, so I usually start there when I'm trying to learn about anything. The other good thing is that the book usually suggests rather good further reading. I skim read then pick out the things which catch my eye for further investigation.
Modal model of memory - Atkinson & Shiffrin (1968)
Based on observing double disocciation of function in neuropsych patients (one patient with impaired LTM but functioning STM and another with the exact opposite).
Consists of three connected modules; the sensory register, the STM and the LTM.
STM has control systems: coding, retrieval and rehearsal (seen as key to getting info from STM into LTM).
Criticisms of this model:
Enter Baddeley & Hitch (1974), who wondered further about the role of the STM. The specifically examined the role of the STM in understanding spoken senstences and in verbal reasoning.
Experiment:
Prose comprehension and simple reasoning tasks given to participants while they were simultaneously trying to memorise a set of digits.
The Atkinson & Shiffrin model would predict that the memorised digits would bung up the small capacity of the STM, leaving no processing capacity spare for the cognitive task. Therefore, performance on the cognitive task should be badly impaired. But it wasn't. (but maybe the participants found the cognitive task more interesting and actually didn't pay much attention to memorising the numbers)
This was the end of the modal model and the dawn of the working memory model (Baddeley & Hitch 1974; Baddeley 1986; 1998).
The working memory model
Sees the notion of STM as a passive receptacle supplanted by the idea of a dynamic system geared towards cognitive processing.
3 components to working memory (WM):
Criticisms of this model:
Sounds potentially contentious. Goody!
Further reading:
Evaluation of WM model - Cognitive Psychology: A Student's Handbook - Eysenck & Keane
Baddeley, AD (1997) Human memory theory & practice (revised edn) Hove: Psychology Press